Thursday, October 23, 2008

Last week Mr. Tessmer actually made an appearance which shocked us all! He quickly made a character and joined the others where they left off, having drinks with Hank at the NaZdrowie.

The new character is a mechanic who's name I have forgotten... and can't find the character sheet right now...

Anyway after meeting the new fellow, the group walked Cpl. Watts back to the hospital and then wandered back to the ruined building they had squatted in the previous evening. As they approached, however, it seemed there were some armed me waiting for them there. This caused some nervousness but as the men weren't standing at the ready or waiting in ambush they decided to ask questions first, shoot later...

The men simply told them to follow them... and they did. Right up to the Wawel (the medieval castle on the hill, over-looking the walled part of the city).

Bah, to make a long story short they were offered work with The Warta - Dowodca Kuterzeba's personal bodyguard....

They accepted and were given a tour of the compound and introduced to some of the other members. Then they worked an uneventful shift. finally they headed back to the NaZdrowie to hang out and try again to find information about DIA operatives that might be in Krakow... without actually ASKING any questions of anybody.... unsurprisingly they found out NOTHING!!?

If I can get the folks to take the kiddies for a sleep-over on the first of November I thought I might run a "Hallowe'en Special Edition" of Savage Saturday. I know, I know... Hallowe'en will be over and technically it's "All Saints Day"... Anyway, the idea would be to start earlier, maybe have the lads over for Pizza and play an extra long extended adventure in a more horror-filled genre... (not that the post-apocalyptic warfare of the current T:2000 Campaign isn't horrific... but...)

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Only Andrej and Amanda played tonight, Darrin and Lloyd doing silly family/thanksgiving-ish things this weekend… So I thought I’d run a little “flackback episode” of Watts (Andrej) and Fisher’s (Amanda) escape from Kalisz just after their division was overrun, but before they met up with Davis and Harris.

Near Kalisz, Poland, 18 July 2000, 0535

SITUATION

The 5th Infantry Division (mechanized) has been overrun. Lt. Fisher, cut off from her HQ, has spen the night scrounging around trying to locate friendlies, gathering about her a small group of soldiers and supplies. Just before dawn the group encounters a sergeant from the British S.A.S. He informs them that to the west there is nothing but Russians for miles and miles. Their best bet might be to head east, and then south towards the city of Krakow, which has apparently declared itself a “free city”.

SCENARIO

The Americans start on the west side of the table and have to exit the east side. The size and disposition of the Russian forces in the area are unknown to them. Hidden unit markers will be placed on the table (of which many were dummies) and they will not be revealed until wither the Americans successfully notice one, or the Russians notice them and start firing.

As this is pretty much a straight-up, tabletop skirmish I decided to use Fortune and Calamity.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)Here are my hidden unit markers. There are eight in total, two (#3 and #5) represent one of the wildcard leaders, the remaining six are dummy/blank markers.

The players had NO IDEA how many forces were out there I wanted to give the impression of potentially a LOT of enemies out there so they would concentrate more on maneuver – “escape and evasion” – rather than try and simply kill them all and then wander off on their own pace.

The NATO forces moving through the woods.

Amanda (and her character, Lt. Fisher – in the bottom left of the picture)

Andrej

Hmmmmmm… the “cautious” character leading from the front…? That should cost some bennies from her starting lot next game…

Leading from the front and hearing lots of noises off in the woods to the front (see all those markers…?) Maybe she was thinking it was a herd of deer.

Nope, it was Russians.

Russians begin firing on Fisher and the Fireteam that was following her.

Around the same time, the group Watts was with also ran into a section of Russians in the woods and began exchanging fire.

The next round Andrej drew a jokers for both Sgt. McFadyn AND the fireteam by him. McFadyn got a bonus benny, but the fireteam rolled snake-eyes, indicating a Freak Event. I was using the Freak Events from Modern Ops. and Andrej rolled 12; Cluster Bomb. The unit suddenly realized it was standing amidst unexploded ordinance from a cluster bomb (rather than screwing the whole bunch and having “minefilds” placed under each of them, I randomly determined one guy to be standing in the middle of a low density minefield. He made it out okay, but later in the game Sgt. Mcfadyn ran through it triggering one of the explosives… it shook him, but he soaked it with a benny.

Lt. Fisher ducks further back through the woods, but is pursued by two of the Russians.

One of the fireteam was taken down, another rushed to his aid (or to recover his M203…).

The M203 from the section with Watts dropped a grenade right in amongst the Russians firing on the other team. Shaking three of them.

Fisher shot one of her pursuers and then made a dash for it (being the only character on the table that wasn’t “loyal”). Being “fleet-footed she made it to the table edge in another turn, then stood there considering whether to go back to the aid of her comrades.

Sgt. McFadyn had taken down two or three Russians himself and was engaged in a firefight when he pulled another joker. Andrej rolled a 12 – triggering ANOTHER freak event; Dysentry – drinking untreated water suddenly caught up with Sgt. McFadyn and he was -2 to all actions for the rest of the game due to a sudden and violent case of dysentery!

Fisher returned to the fight and briefly exchanged shots with Sgt. Popoff before disappearing off into the woods again to see what was going on elsewhere. She did this as the firing back where she had left the fireteam following her had ceased. She figured they were either dead or had overcome the Russians. The former seemed more likely.

Indeed they had been taken out by the Soviets – here are the Russians finishing them off and looting the bodies.

Over by Watts things had gone from bad to worse. Two of the three men in the fireteam were down and the third was shaken and unlikely to recover anytime soon. Watts had actually made use of his combat medic ability to bring one guy back into the game only to have him taken down again by a sniper then next turn.

Being the “Stubbornly”, “heroically”, “Loyal” sort he wasn’t about to abandon his fellow Americans so he made a stand when the remaining Soviets came creeping thorugh the woods to overrun his position. In two turn he took down two of the three Russians, and the third surrendered to him!

Meanwhile Fisher had snuck up behind the Russian officer that McFadyn was still shooting at and shot him in the back, finishing him off (he already had three wounds!)

McFadyn made his way back to Watts position and rallied the shaken trooper, then with the aid of Fisher and the Russian POW they carried off the two wounded….

So that’s how Watts and Fisher broke out of Kalisz… Not sure what ever happened to the SAS Sergeant and the other three Americans after that… Of the two injured one had only been knocked unconscious (or perhaps fainted), the other was seriously injured…

Nest week… what to do… Lloyd and Andrej will be bailing as UFC is apparently more interesting and can’t be recorded…. I think we’ll move things back to Krakow and say Watts is busy with hid new “day job” at the hospital and that dysentery that’s going around finally catches up with Davis… He’ll spend the entire time in an outhouse somewhere…

Friday, October 10, 2008

The adventure picked up where we left off last week. Watches were setup and the characters settled down for some shut-eye in their new home.

Just past midnight, on Sgt Davis’ shift, a patrol of the ORMO passed by in the street below. As they disappeared out of sight in the darkness (only a couple “doors” down) There was much shouting followed abruptly by a large volume of gunfire! The patrol had walked into an Ambush of some sort. Harris immediately started searching for targets and began taking them down.

Spec Harris and Lt. Fisher flew into action – down the stairs and into the street to intervene. Most of the ORMO were down by this point. Harris took down three of the ambushers, Davis picked off two. Lt. Fisher managed to capture one alive and un injured.

Another patrol arrived, the injured were taken to the hospital, and the group made some friends within the ORMO. They were also able to scavenge some ammo from the ambushers (though not useful to them, they figured they might be able to sell or trade it for something they could use.

Watts, who was now working at the hospital, helped fix some of the wounded ORMO as they arrived later in the morning.

After a couple more hours of sleep they got up and decided to explore the town. They were unsuccessful in their search for employment or event to trade away the scavenged ammo. They did however meek Henryk Halecki and had a drink and chat with him at his night club; the Na Zdrowie.

Not sure if we will be playing this again next Saturday…. Darrin and Lloyd are bailing (Thanksgiving family rubbish)… the next week Lloyd and Andrej are bailing (apparently UFC is more interesting than my Savage Worlds game…). Maybe I’ll set up some Rippers skirmish games or something… or perhaps just forge on without them…!?